Jews of Greece | Music in the Afternoon
The Kombos Collective presents a powerful program celebrating the Sephardic Jews of Greece and the broader Mediterranean. The Sephardim have a long history in Greece, with musical traditions that are woven deep into the fabric of the region. Led by Ellie Falaris Ganelin on flute, the Kombos Collective is pleased to collaborate with Sarah Aroeste who sings in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language of the Sephardim. She keeps the language alive with unique interpretations of traditional Sephardic songs and her original compositions sung in Ladino. She is joined by her longtime pianist and producer Shai Bachar. Together, the trio offers a multimedia program of old and new songs infused with Greek and Sephardic influences. Through stories and song, this concert in celebration of the Jews of Greece is meant to educate, entertain and inspire.
Musicians:
Ellie Falaris Ganelin - flute
Sarah Aroeste - vocals
Shai Bachar - piano
One-hour concert from 1:00–2:00 PM. Coffee and snacks will be served in the lobby after the concert.
Early Bird tickets are $20 until May 10. General Admission is $30.
No refunds once tickets are purchased.
Ellie Falaris Ganelin -
Ellie is the director of the Kombos Collective, which she founded in 2011 under the name Greek Chamber Music Project. She is a classically trained flutist who welcomes other traditions into the fold, including jazz, Latin, Balkan and klezmer music. She is active as a performer of chamber and orchestral music in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is committed to making classical music inviting and accessible for all as an ambassador and performer for the Awesöme Orchestra Collective.
Born and raised in the United States, Ellie is Greek and Croatian-American, whose father hails from Thessaloniki. She’s a proficient speaker and lifelong learner of Modern Greek. Her work with the Kombos Collective has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and deepen her Hellenic heritage. Ellie received her B.A. in Music from the University of Maryland, where she also holds a B.A. in Journalism and a Minor in French. For many years, Ellie had a dual career in nonprofit communications, while simultaneously presenting GCMP concerts.
Sarah Aroeste -
Inspired by her family's Sephardic roots in N. Macedonia and Greece, Sarah has spent the last two decades bringing her contemporary vision for Sephardic culture- through music and books- to audiences around the world. Aroeste writes and sings in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish dialect that originated by Spanish Jews after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Those who left Spain, including Aroeste’s family, carried the medieval language with them to the various points where they later settled, primarily along the Mediterranean coast and North Africa. In time, Ladino came to absorb bits and pieces of languages all along the Mediterranean coast, including some Greek, Turkish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Hebrew, and more.
American born and trained in classical opera at Yale University, Aroeste became drawn to her Sephardic musical past after spending a summer in 1997 performing at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. There, she had the fortune of studying with Nico Castel, one of the world’s great Ladino singers and coaches at the Metropolitan Opera, with whom she learned she shared a similar Sephardic background. Continuing to study with Castel upon her return to the US, Aroeste started incorporating classical Ladino songs into her opera repertoire.
Aroeste is one of few Ladino composers today who writes her own music, and whether with her original compositions or with interpreting Ladino folk repertoire, she has developed a signature style combining traditional Mediterranean Sephardic sounds with contemporary influences such as rock, pop and jazz. To date, she has released eight recordings, A la Una: In the Beginning (2003), Puertas (2007), Gracia (2012), Ora de Despertar (2016), the first all-original Ladino children's album, Together/Endjuntos (2017), the first bilingual (Ladino/English) holiday album, Monastir (2021), the all-Ladino Hanukkah CD, Hanuká (2021)., and most recently, Savor (2023), a unique Sephardic music and food pairing.
In 2008 Aroeste was a finalist in Israel’s prestigious “Festiladino” competition of original Ladino songs and performed her winning song with the Jerusalem Symphony. Currently, Aroeste works with renowned Israeli composer and producer Shai Bachar to stage the live, multi-media production of her Gracia project, which is an original Ladino, feminist, rock homage to 16th century Sephardic heroine, Dona Gracia Naci, as well as their many projects since. In September of 2014, an electronic version of their Gracia project won the Sephardic Prize at the International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, and in June 2015 the Gracia project represented the USA at the International Sephardic Music Festival in Cordoba, Spain. In 2019, Aroeste was selected to perform one of her programs, Yiddish meets Ladino, as part of Carnegie Hall’s Migrations Festival: The Making of America. Most recently, Aroeste's 2021 recording Monastir won best Jewish Album of the year by media outlet Alma, and in December 2021, Aroeste received the Young Leadership Award from the Sephardic Brotherhood of America for her work in advancing Sephardic culture. Currently, Aroeste is hard at work directing The Monastir Project, which brings Israeli and Macedonian musicians together to honor Monastir, a once thriving Sephardic Balkan community before WWII, as well as Savor, her program with Sephardic chef Susan Barocas, that engages communities in a multi-sensory conversation between Sephardic music, food and history.
Shai Bachar- Musical Producer
Jerusalem-born Shai Bachar has worked with international artists as varied as Ishtar Alabina, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Sheila Jordan and Dudu Fisher. He produced a platinum-record for Israeli superstar Ronit Shachar. Shai wrote the original music for the Israeli Academy of Film best documentary film, Souvenirs (2007), and has scored countless commercials, PBS specials, and movies both in the US and in Israel.
Senior Programs are made possible in part by generous contributions from the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund, the John R. Schwabacher Family, Diane and Jon Claerbout, as well as many other individual donors. We are grateful for their generous support.